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You rise an hour before dawn. You have chosen to wear the simple clothing of a Chai countryman—a padded jacket of cinnamon-coloured cotton, apple green breeches, tan leather boots, and a hooded grey woollen cloak. You don your equipment and make a final check before you leave your chambers and hurry to the parade ground.

In the early predawn light, the area is alive with activity. The hum of the skyship engines makes the gravel surface of the parade ground vibrate beneath your feet as you approach the magnificent vessels. Lord Rimoah beckons you over to the boarding stairs of the Comet. He and Grand Master Blazer are awaiting you on main deck, and they both salute when you step aboard. They invite you to join them at the rail and watch the preparations that are underway on the deck of Skyfort, moored alongside. You watch Lone Wolf leading Black Hawk, Star Lynx, Steel Hand, and Swift Sword in single file up the boarding steps. When they are all on deck, they turn to wave you farewell. You and Blazer return their waves and bid them good luck and good hunting.

Comet is the first to leave the parade ground. The powerful hum of its engine rises steadily in pitch as the skycraft makes its ascent. As it gains altitude, so you are afforded a spectacular view of the morning sunrise. It bathes the Kai Monastery with a vividly golden light. Once the skyship is safely clear of the monastery’s towers, Lord Rimoah sets a north-westerly course before handing over the helm to bo’sun Durin. With a smile, Lord Rimoah invites you and Blazer to join him in the skycraft’s comfortable cabin where breakfast awaits.

You enjoy a hearty meal together and discuss the details of your missions. The first part of your aerial voyage will take you to the small Chai coastal town of H’lau. This is where you will disembark and begin your overland journey incognito to the Chai capital, Pensei.

Enemy agents are known to be operating in Pensei and so it has been decided not to land you at the capital directly, for to do so would alert Zashnor to your presence and reveal your intentions. After dropping you off in H’lau, located on the Chai Sea, Lord Rimoah and Blazer will proceed to the Kraknalorg chasm where his mission awaits. You will each be picked up by Comet after you have completed your quests. Lord Rimoah gives each of you a large amber gem, the size of an orange. These are tracker-gems, kindly provided by Sage Chastan. He also gives you each a small leather satchel in which to keep it. (Record this Tracker-Gem as a Special Item on your Action Chart. You keep it in its leather satchel which you wear slung over your right shoulder and around your body, so that the satchel rests on your left hip.) Rimoah tells you that the stones are beacons. They emit a power that he can detect at a great distance. By way of these beacons, he will be able to steer the Comet to your precise locations and retrieve you. Then he adds a few cautionary words:

‘Be sure you do not part company with your tracker-gem. Look after it and it will look after you.’

Rimoah tells you that the first part of the voyage, to your drop-off point at H’lau, will take six hours. You are expecting to arrive there at noon. A guide will be waiting for you at a clearing located a mile to the east of the coastal town. His name is Anseng. Lord Rimoah says that you could not wish for a better guide.

‘He was once an Imperial Chai Guard Captain, and now, in early retirement, he is one of a network of brave agents who provide us with reliable information about our enemies, most especially their troop strengths and dispositions. He will take you directly to Pensei for an audience with Khea-khan Lao Tin. You are to collect the Eye of Agarash and leave the city. Head south towards the coastal city of Dwala. I will return to Chai at dusk of the sixth day hence. So long as you still possess your tracker-gem, I will find you and bring you back to the monastery, safe and sure.’

You are reassured by Rimoah’s plan, yet you know that so much depends upon you retrieving the Eye of Agarash before Zashnor and his ravenous army reaches Pensei.

Three hours after leaving the Isle of Lorn, the Comet runs into heavy weather over the Mythenian Sea. Bo’sun Durin commands the crew to secure the decks for a rough passage. Once their duties are completed, they hurry below deck to the safety of their quarters. The bo’sun is expecting to be clear of the storm and back on course within the hour, yet the weather does not improve; it steadily worsens. The Comet is swallowed up in a seemingly endless expanse of roiling black thunder clouds. Tremendous winds buffet the hull and the skyship is shaken vigorously from bow to stern. Lord Rimoah draws upon his great powers to create a magical sphere of calmness that encapsulates the Comet. It keeps you safe from the lightning and the tremendous winds, but it cannot increase the speed of your passage and you are blown wildly off course.

It is close to midnight, twelve hours past your expected time of arrival, when finally the tiny lights of the coastal town of H’lau are first sighted in the sheeting rain. As Comet passes over the town, you see that it has been badly damaged by the storm. Many of the dwellings have lost their roofs and its colourful fleet of fishing boats lies smashed and scattered along the shoreline. On the outskirts of the battered town, Lord Rimoah orders bo’sun Durin to slow the skyship to a halt. Below its keel, you look down upon a clearing in the toa and Chai pine trees which is bisected by a muddy road. This area is illuminated sporadically by flashes of lightning. A solitary male figure stands in the middle of this grassy, storm-swept clearing. He is clad in a wide-brimmed peasant’s hat, a hooded rain cape, and he is holding aloft a Chai lantern which gives off a pale yellowy light.

‘There is Anseng,’ says Lord Rimoah, shouting to be heard above the noise of the fierce storm. ‘Reliable as always!’

A rope ladder is dropped over the side and you watch with trepidation as Anseng struggles to grab the end and hold it secure. When he has a firm grip on the foot of the rope ladder, Lord Rimoah motions you to begin your descent. As you clamber over the rail, he places his hand on your shoulder and says:

‘Good hunting, my lord. May Kai and Ishir be with you, always.’

You acknowledge Rimoah’s gracious words with a nod of your head and commence your difficult climb down to the clearing, one hundred feet below.

You are barely twenty feet from the ground when the Comet is hit simultaneously by two powerful bolts of lightning. The sphere of calmness that encapsulates the skyship is ripped open by the tremendous force of these dual lightning strikes, and the vessel is suddenly exposed to the full ferocity of the storm. As Lord Rimoah and bo’sun Durin attempt desperately to regain control of the skyship, you fight to hang on to the rope ladder as it bucks and twists wildly.

If you possess the Grand Master Discipline of Elementalism, and if you have also attained the rank of Kai Grand Guardian (or higher), turn to 166.

If you do not possess this skill, or if you have not yet attained this rank, turn instead to 272.